


Winter Wonderland

by KariHigada, NoteInABottle



Series: Shizaya - Apple Farm AU [2]
Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apple Farm, Domesticity, Established Relationship, Fluff, I Had a Craving, Living Together, M/M, Playing in the Snow, Plot With Porn, Slice of Life, Smut, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:42:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22076401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KariHigada/pseuds/KariHigada, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoteInABottle/pseuds/NoteInABottle
Summary: “Why do you keep giving me apples whenever we meet?”“You know the story of Snow White? The one with a poisoned apple in it?”“Yeah,” Shizuo was suddenly wary. “So?”“Well, clearly I’m a witch, and I’ve been feeding you cursed apples all this time. That’s why you’ve stayed in love with me for so long.”Six years later, Izaya and Shizuo spend a winter vacation in Aomori. Unexpected things happen, expected things happen, and they figure out what life looks like during a happily-ever-after.
Relationships: Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya
Series: Shizaya - Apple Farm AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589143
Comments: 30
Kudos: 98





	1. Winter Wonderland

Aomori in the winter is one of the snowiest places on earth.

Standing in front of the lodge, shivering to keep warm, Izaya wonders what to do. It’s been six years since he last saw this place. His entire family had stayed here once, during one of their rare family vacations. The lodge is just as large as he remembers it, made out of wood, but now with snow piled up high overhead. On one end of the building, he can see that the weight of the snow has broken through and collapsed the roof.

It’s actually a rather spectacular sight. The whole building now lists a little to one side.

"Well," Izaya says wryly into the freezing air. "That’s not good."

It’s his winter break, in his last year of college. He has rented out this lodge, just like his parents did six years ago. It used to belong to a large farming family, but then it got sold to a tourism company a couple years later. That company now runs several lodges in the area, but apparently they’ve been a little slow on maintenance.

Getting back into his rented car, with its heater set on full blast, Izaya rubs his hands for a while before pulling out his phone. He’s not overly attached to that lodge, so he’s not too broken up about it being out of commission. What he’s more worried about is having someplace to stay the night.

He calls the tourist company’s service number. Someone picks up on the fifth ring.

It’s an automated system, so Izaya goes through the menu patiently as he tries to get to a human that will help him sort out this mess. At last, a customer service rep’s voice comes over the line.

"Hi, how may I help you?"

"Hi," Izaya provides his name and booking information. They go through the standard verification and validation process. "When I showed up at the lodge, the roof was caved in from all the snow," he explains. "Is there another lodge open, or another place in the area that I can book?"

The service rep checks for a moment. "I’m sorry," he says, sounding genuinely sorry. "It looks like all of our lodges in Aomori are completely booked out for the winter season."

"Ah." It’s a popular time of the year to be in Aomori, despite the snow. Izaya is pretty sure that all the other hotels will be completely full as well.

"Would you like a voucher for a future stay? Of course, we’ll refund your booking fee in full, as this was our fault."

Izaya agrees absentmindedly, and then hangs up. He doesn’t have a very good data connection here, but he tries anyway to search for hotels or motels in the area. As he expected, however, all of them are full.

A little shard of panic rises up in him, and he quashes it down. After a moment, he dials another number. This time, it picks up on the first ring.

"Hey," Shizuo’s voice comes over the line, warm enough to chase the chill right out of Izaya’s bones.

"Hey," Izaya replies back mournfully.

Shizuo picks up on his tone immediately. "What’s wrong?"

In a few brief sentences, Izaya explains their situation. They had been planning this trip for a while, matching up Izaya’s winter break with Shizuo’s vacation days from his job. Izaya has been looking forward to this trip for the entire semester. He is not going to cancel it, no matter what.

Shizuo is working at a private security firm now, the kind that is often contracted to provide security for events like concerts and shows. Izaya is just about to graduate from his university, but he isn’t sure what he wants to do yet. They’ve stayed together, ever since that summer in Aomori, when Izaya had been here on vacation, and Shizuo had been working here as a farmhand.

Izaya smiles at the memory. Apples are still an inside joke between him and Shizuo. Whenever the Niigotas send Shizuo a crate of apples, Izaya gets a share. Whenever they meet after a long time apart, Izaya always offers Shizuo an apple as a greeting gift. His definition of a ‘long time apart’ has sometimes varied from five minutes to several weeks, depending on the circumstances.

Speaking of which, Izaya frowns slightly. He’s forgotten to bring apples here, even though it has been at least several weeks since he’s seen Shizuo. And where is he supposed to find apples in this season?

"Don’t worry about it," Shizuo says to him, as if he’s read Izaya’s mind. "Let me ask the Niigotas if they can help. They might be able to take you in for the night. We can figure out the rest after I come up tomorrow morning."

"Oh, you don’t have to bother them," Izaya protests. A little jokingly, he adds: "I can sleep in my car just fine. Or find a haystack. There should be some around here."

"Don’t be ridiculous," Shizuo tells him. "I’m sure they won’t mind. Did the hotel say anything about giving us a refund?"

"They did," Izaya informs him. "And we get a voucher too."

"Alright," Shizuo laughs. "Don’t be too hard on them. This stuff happens. Let me make the call, and I’ll give you their address. Sound good?"

"I love you," Izaya replies.

Shizuo just chuckles at that, then hangs up and goes off to fix everything.

  


Fifteen minutes, everything is sorted out, and Izaya is back on the road.

The snow banks on either side of the road are precariously tall, giving Izaya the impression that he is driving through some white tunnel instead of a road. The sky is ice-white with clouds overhead. Luckily, though, it’s still pretty bright out, and it’s not snowing.

He arrives at the Niigota residence just before sunset. They all bundle him inside, exclaim over how tall he’s grown, how long it’s been. There’s a warm cup of tea placed into his hands, and a whole slew of snacks set at the table. Ms. Niigota is a typical farm wife with streaks of grey in her hair and warm laugh. Mr. Niigota is a leather-faced farmer who remembers Shizuo fondly from his farmhand days. They both remember Izaya as well, and console him about the unfortunate situation.

"That’s what happens when you don’t hire somebody to shovel all the snow off your roof," Mr. Niigota says. "I think there was a pretty bad snow storm right before you arrived. Luckily you just missed it, or the road conditions would have been pretty rough."

"Any news on the weather tomorrow?" Izaya asks.

Mr. Niigota flashes him a quick smile. "Cloudy skies and light snow," he says, "But nothing so bad that the roads will close."

Izaya looks down and blushes, because he’s _still_ not used to this, after all this time. Ms. Niigota was probably the first one to figure out that he and Shizuo were dating. Honestly, it seemed like all the mothers caught on first, and then their husbands figured it out later. Izaya still isn’t sure how early on _his_ mother had realized - but that’s all beside the point now.

He’s given Shizuo’s old room. He remembers its neat simplicity, the child-sized closet and the narrow bunk bed. He assures the Niigotas that it’s perfectly fine, thanks them profusely for their help again, and stores his luggage in one corner without opening it. He’s not sure what his situation will be in the morning, so there’s no need to unpack just yet.

When he lies down on the narrow bunk bed, exhausted from a day’s worth of driving, Izaya smiles up at the ceiling. He remembers spending a lot of time here, that summer. This is a familiar place to him. For the first time since coming back to Aomori, he begins to relax.

  


Aomori is a beautiful frozen landscape, with trees that are white mounds of snow, icy roads, and a view that is blanketed in white.

Shizuo drives carefully, although there is little traffic in this area. The man from the car rental company had nearly talked his ear off with warnings about mountainous roads and icy conditions. Shizuo kind of wanted to tell him: _it’s okay, I could probably survive a car crash. Actually, I could probably survive a car running into me_. But the man wouldn’t have gotten it, and it was all a minor inconvenience anyway.

This is his first major vacation ever since he has started working. Granted, he’s taken days off every now and then, for holidays, family events, appointments and such. But those had all been one-day things. This is his first time requesting a whole block of time - ten days - off from work.

He’s looking forward to it a lot. Not just because he’ll get to spend time with Izaya, although that is a big part of it. He has been thinking about this particular trip for a long time now.

Anticipation glows inside him like a warm coal, until Shizuo feels warm instead of chilly in the car. The glass windows are a little frosted from the temperature difference. He is almost there anyway, though. The Niigota family house looms up ahead at the end of the driveway, a traditional looking two-story building.

When Shizuo parks and gets out, the cold air hits him in the face. It’s like he’s stepped into a massive freezer, except this freezer encompasses the entire world. Instantly, he quickens his pace, gets out his luggage, and knocks on the front door.

He’s pretty sure that he saw Izaya’s rented car in the driveway, so his heart is pounding fast when he hears footsteps coming down the stairs. When the door opens, Shizuo is already grinning with expectation.

Izaya is the one who opens the door, except he’s not alone - he’s holding a small child in his arms, a child with dark hair and light grey eyes.

Shizuo blinks, and he’s so shocked for a moment that he can’t find anything to say.

"Hi," Izaya grins at him. He’s in a light sweater, one that is once again too big for him and sliding slightly off one shoulder. Shizuo realizes with another shock that Izaya is still barefoot, and the cold air from outside is pouring into the house from the open door.

"Hey," Shizuo replies breathlessly, and hurries to get inside and close the door. He glances at the small child, who is now shivering a little and huddling against Izaya for warmth. "Who’s this?"

"This kid?" Izaya lifts the boy up a little, getting his attention. "Hey there, do you want to introduce yourself? This is Shizu-chan. Don’t be scared of him. He’s _really_ nice."

Shizuo is starting to get over some of his shock. He smiles at the kid, who blinks at him and smiles back shyly.

"Hi," Shizuo says gently. "What’s your name?"

"Mikado," the boy replies. His voice grows a bit smaller. "Mikado Ryuugamine."

Well, _that’s_ quite the name. Izaya grins widely and tells Mikado _good job_ , then sets him down onto the floor.

"Ok, my turn," he says, and then practically throws himself into Shizuo’s arms.

Shizuo catches him and spins him around, carefully since there are now children underfoot. Izaya doesn’t seem to care, though. He kisses Shizuo as if it’s been months since they last saw each other instead of several weeks.

A sharp thrill of satisfaction goes through Shizuo, because it _has_ been a long time. He has missed Izaya’s presence. The last few weeks had been busy, with Izaya’s exams, and Shizuo pulling extra shifts to get enough vacation time. And now, four thousand miles away and a couple weeks later, they’ve finally found each other again.

"I missed you," Izaya breathes, as if that wasn't obvious already. Shizuo huffs a short breath of laughter and leans in for another kiss, simple and sweet.

"I missed you too," he replies.

Then he hears either Ms. or Mr. Niigota coming over from the kitchen, so he sets Izaya back down. It turns out that both of them have come out to greet him. They both look as healthy and cheerful as ever, which Shizuo is glad to see. They both exclaim in surprise over how tall he’s grown. He had been about their height back when he worked for them, but he towers over both of them now.

Eventually he asks if Mikado is one of their grandchildren, come back for the holiday season. It turns out that Mikado isn’t. At Shizuo’s confused look, Ms. Niigota just beckons him towards the kitchen.

"It’s a long story," she laughs. "Come in and get settled."

Shizuo gives Izaya one last, confused look. Izaya is just grinning at him, as if he has some secret to share, or some exciting story to tell. Shizuo knows that look, and knows Izaya is going to enjoy whatever comes next.

"What’s going on?" he asks Izaya in an undertone, even though he probably won’t get a real answer.

Izaya takes his luggage and herds Shizuo towards the kitchen. Shizuo is still looking at him, his eyes caught on that mischievous smile, so he is not prepared at all for what he sees when he finally enters the kitchen. When he does, he stops in his tracks, and stares.

"Oh my god," Shizuo says, in a slightly choked voice. "There’s _so many_ of them."

  


There are kids in the brightly lit kitchen, all around Mikado’s age. One boy is crouched on top of the counter, wearing a fierce scowl. Mikado is on the ground next to him, standing up on his tiptoes, whispering into his ear. There are another two girls in their own corners of the room, one with glasses and long braids, and one with short hair.

It turns out that they all came here on a class trip. They all attend the same school, and their teachers decided to have a field trip to Aomori during winter break. Unfortunately, they were met with the same situation that Izaya was - their hotel roof caved in. Even more unfortunately - they were still inside when it happened. There had been a couple injuries, although not for any of the kids. Two of the teachers had been sent to a hospital for slight concussions and minor lacerations, and the remaining one was currently visiting their main office in order to try and get the hospital bills and other stuff figured out.

In any case, Mr. Niigota had come across them on his way home last night while one of the teachers was still screaming at the hotel staff. The kids were huddling together for warmth in the snow outside. According to Mr. Niigota, they had been outside for nearly an hour, in hastily-donned coats over their pajamas. After realizing what was going on, he had promptly loaded them all into his truck, talked down the screaming teacher, and bundled them all off into his home.

So, that left four kids and two no-longer-kids now taking shelter from the snow in the Niigota’s family home. It was, Ms. Niigota joked, a lot like the good old times.

"That’s awful," Shizuo says, after he’s heard the whole story. Not to the part about the good old times, but the part about the kids being left out in the snow. He winces in sympathy, remembering how just a few moments outside had been enough to make his fingers and toes feel numb. "Are they okay now?"

"More or less," Izaya answers him. Mikado is in his lap. He had been drawn in by their conversation, and had listened quietly behind Izaya’s chair until Izaya had picked him up. The boy is pretty quiet, for a child of about five or six. He watches Shizuo with light grey eyes that seem to take in everything.

"Kids that age are pretty resilient," Mr. Niigota says. He sighs. "But still, that’s some bad business. That hotel must not have hired anybody to shovel snow off of the roof. Snowfall here in winter is no joke."

Shizuo looks at Izaya. "That’s the same thing that happened to our place, right?"

"Pretty much," Izaya answers wryly, and makes Mikado do a grand gesture with his hands. "From what I saw, the roof had been broken for a while. I guess they never sent anybody to go check on it."

"Wow," Shizuo says dryly. Izaya grins as if to parrot back at him: _that’s alright. Don’t be too hard on them. This stuff happens._

"In any case, you all are welcome to stay here for as long as you like," Ms. Niigota declares, standing up and clapping her hands. All the kids look up, in one motion, so Shizuo knows this means that lunch is coming up soon. "Heaven knows I’ll need help watching over the little ones, and Izaya has already offered to go shopping in the afternoon for some supplies. Let the hotel and the teachers figure out their own mess. You two just enjoy your vacation."

"Thank you, ma’am," Shizuo says gratefully, and Ms. Niigota just laughs at him in reply, for still being so polite after all this time.

  


The names of the children are Mikado Ryuugamine, Kida Masaomi, Anri Sonohara, and Saki Mikajima.

Izaya had been woken up last night by the sound of all the commotion going on downstairs. After getting the whole story from Mr. Niigota and a near-hysterical teacher, he had helped out with the operation of getting the kids into more comfortable, dry clothing, and coaxing them into drinking hot chocolate. Mr. Niigota had been glossing over some of the uglier details; the kids had nearly been blue in the face, and had not stopped shivering for several hours.

A lifetime of having two little sisters, however, has made Izaya good at dealing with kids.

Immediately, he begins telling them little children’s stories, funny little anecdotes, anything he can come up with to fill their teeth-chattering silence. They all huddle together on the couch, staring at him with wide eyes. He has to keep reminding them to keep drinking their hot chocolate. In the end, they finally stop shivering.

By that point, they are all so tired that they fall asleep right then and there, in a huge pile on the couch.

In any case, his storytelling skills have the unexpected effect of making one of the boys, Mikado, very attached to him. The next morning, he goes up to Izaya, and politely asks for more stories.

Izaya instantly likes him; he likes any kid that can sit quietly and listen earnestly, unlike his precocious sisters.

The next morning, while waiting for Shizuo to arrive, Izaya notices that Saki is a little separated from the rest. Mikado, Kida, and Anri often get dragged into the same little games that kids often play. Saki, however, is so quiet that Izaya still hasn’t heard her voice, and often is by herself. This is apparently not due to lack of effort from the others to include her. She just seems to ignore their invitations. After a while, they have stopped trying.

He also notices that Mikado and Kida are definitely best friends, and one is never far from the other. Kida is the younger one, but he acts like the oldest. He is loud and brash and talkative where Mikado is quiet and sometimes shy. Kida is also usually the one to start off the games, and unlike the others, he hasn’t given up on getting Saki to join them yet.

Anri is the dark-haired girl, with long braids and a solemn expression. She seems to follow along with whatever game the other two come up with, but she also tends to break off and do her own thing whenever the boys get too loud for her.

There are a lot of quiet ones, in this group of kids. Izaya wonders if his sisters had ever been so quiet, but even Kururi’s one word answers spoke volumes sometimes. Or maybe he has just gotten good at reading his sisters, and other kids are more of a challenge.

He tells this to Shizuo while they’re out grocery shopping. Their cart has a steadily growing mountain of things in it - pasta and rice, juice boxes and milk and cereal and egg cartons and onions and potatoes. Non-food essentials like paper towels and napkins.

The hotel staff had been able to rescue the luggage from the snow in the morning, so they were good on clothing and toiletries. Izaya sincerely hopes that this class of kids gets a lot more than just a voucher, for their inconvenience.

Shizuo listens to him through all of it with a slight smile. He is another one of those people who Izaya deems a great listener. Izaya supposes that is another reason why Shizuo is his favorite person in the whole world.

"What do you think?" he sighs at last, looking at their shopping cart. He thinks they’ve got everything they need, but he doesn’t want to forget something and have to come back.

Shizuo touches him lightly on his back, "I think those kids will be just fine," he says. His smile suddenly becomes a grin. "They’ve got you to look out for them."

"I’m sorry that our winter vacation ended up like this," Izaya tells him. Shizuo just laughs.

"Don’t be sorry," he says. "I think this winter vacation is going to be great."


	2. Afternoon Nap

The kids are all soundly asleep in the living room when they get back. They have formed a little pile of sleeping bodies on a large air mattress that has been inflated and set up to create a temporary bedroom.

They are all so small that all four of them fit easily onto the mattress, with more than enough room to spare. Shizuo leans against the doorway for a while, watching them, wondering if he had ever been that small.

There's a note on the kitchen table, saying that the Niigotas are both out to help the teacher sort out some things. It turns out that the hotel situation is looking a bit better - they've agreed to pay the hospital bills, and they're trying their hardest to find a place for the class to stay. It's just that their main office closes incredibly early, so they are trying to get everything sorted out before that happens.

They quietly load the groceries into the fridge. When they're done, the whole pantry looks full to bursting and incredibly well stocked.

Then, by some unspoken agreement, they both head towards their room.

They didn't come here on vacation with any set plan. There were a few things that they wanted to check out - the ice sculptures and the market. Mostly they had been planning to take each day as it came. That had turned out to be a good plan, given the amount of unexpected things that had happened in their first 24 hours here.

The stairs creak a little when they go up. Izaya flashes Shizuo an amused glance as Shizuo stumbles a little and tries to be quieter. The whole house is quiet with the loaded, tentative silence that comes with people sleeping inside.

When they close the door to Shizuo's old room, Izaya throws himself at Shizuo again. He's shivering slightly, and his skin is cold to the touch. They hug for a long moment, and Shizuo's body flares with heat as he remembers that it has always been his job to warm Izaya up.

He had been trying to hold himself back, since other things have been happening. There were chores to do and unexpected events to deal with, but with those out of the way Shizuo can finally focus on the simple joy of being with Izaya again.

Already, his hands are traveling down Izaya's back. The thin sweater is made out of some incredibly soft fabric. Shizuo runs his hands along it several times, appreciating its downy texture. Izaya leans in against him, relaxing into his touch. He buries his face in Shizuo's chest.

"- missed you," Izaya's voice is muffled. His arms around Shizuo's neck tightens. Shizuo can't help the desire that streaks through him. He pulls Izaya closer. Izaya's voice breaks off into a moan. " _Shizu-chan - missed you -_ "

That's all it takes for Shizuo's restraint to break.

He carries Izaya to the bed, pulse thrumming hard in his ears, and begins to strip him naked. First goes Izaya's sweater, soft as it is, it can't begin to compare to the silky feel of Izaya's skin. Next is his shirt, then his pants and underclothes. Then Izaya is finally laid bare in front of him, looking up at him with that amused grin.

Shizuo kisses him, and tastes Izaya's laughter in the quirk of his lips and the shudder of his breath. He keeps kissing him as he undoes the buttons of his own pants with one hand. It would be easier with two, but he can't take his hand away from Izaya's hair, where it has tangled into the soft strands.

Izaya tries to help him take off his pants, but Shizuo distracts him by pressing his body down, grinding lightly against the open angle of his legs. Izaya reacts instantly to that suggestion - his head goes back in a soundless cry, and his entire body tenses with a sudden spike of anticipation. His skin is no longer chilled, Shizuo notes with distant satisfaction. It is flushed with warmth now, soft and sensitive to every touch.

Finally, he presses Izaya farther back a little, climbing on top of him and never breaking his kiss. He has a hand wrapped around himself, but he hardly needs any effort to stroke himself to hardness. He has been holding back all day. He hasn't seen Izaya in weeks. He loves fucking Izaya after they have spent a long time apart. It is always a bit more intense, a little more desperate, as if they are making up for lost time.

Izaya moans, low and wanting. The sound is right next to Shizuo's ear, and it drives him crazy. He doesn't bother with the rest of his clothes; he is so turned on that another second of delay would feel like torture.

His hands come down to hold Izaya's hips, to hold him steady. Izaya gasps wildly and tries to move, to buck his hips and try to take Shizuo inside him faster. Shizuo keeps him still even as sparks flicker up his spine, and pleasure dances along his veins. Izaya is so desperate for him. It takes a massive effort to keep himself under control, to not give Izaya everything he wants.

He pushes himself in slowly, taking his sweet time, giving Izaya time to relax before pushing in further. When he is done, Izaya is a barely coherent mess underneath him, his body trembling with pleasure, barely able to keep his eyes open.

A sharp thrill of satisfaction goes through Shizuo at the sight. He loves seeing Izaya like this. He can't get enough of it. And he's only just begun.

.

Izaya doesn't think he can make it to the end without fainting, not at this rate, with Shizuo filling his body with so much pleasure, and still going.

His legs are hooked around Shizuo's waist, held down by hands that have settled around his thighs. Shizuo's palms are incredibly warm, where they touch his skin.

Izaya has been craving this since this morning.

Shizuo has been touching him with little gestures for the whole day, brushing a hand along his back, pressing their knees together under the table. Shizuo probably hadn't even noticed doing it himself. Izaya feels a little jolt of pleasure with every touch, with Shizuo finding every little excuse to press their skin together. He is surprised that he even managed to finish grocery shopping without dragging Shizuo into a secluded corner and kissing him.

In any case, it seems as if his patience will be rewarded now, with Shizuo's cock deep inside him, moving with inexorable force.

Izaya tries to shift his hips, to meet Shizuo's movements with some response of his own. To his surprise, Shizuo holds him down more firmly. He wants Izaya to hold still, and apparently doesn't want the distraction of Izaya's hips moving against him.

His plan becomes clear, fifteen minutes later, after Izaya has been brought to the brink of orgasm and back again, too many times to count.

He's _edging_ Izaya, building him up to an even bigger climax, not letting him come until he's certain it will absolutely destroy him.

They rarely have the time to do this. But right now, they have all the time in the world. Izaya is _gone_. He can barely think. There is an insane pressure building up inside him, some force that he can feel gathering behind his eyes, under his skin.

Again and again and again and again and again, Shizuo drives his cock into him.

Izaya goes insane. His breath is coming in short gasps. Violent flickers of heat are consuming him, making it impossible to open his eyes. He's drowning in this sensation, he can't last. Shizuo is fucking into him with deliciously fast thrusts, but just as Izaya tenses up and starts to slide into oblivion, Shizuo slows down.

Izaya digs hard against the support of the mattress. He can't take any more teasing. He needs Shizuo to move harder, needs Shizuo to give him everything. The desperation makes him cry out. He _needs_ this. He can't even think past all of this raging desire.

Izaya goes beyond insane. His hands are on Shizuo's hips, pulling, pleading. He is writhing under Shizuo's body, too overwhelmed to do much else. There is the massive weight of Shizuo's cock moving inside him, so deep and heavy with each movement that Izaya can feel it shifting his entire body on the mattress.

" _Please,_ " Izaya has been asking for this for the past few minutes, but this time his voice cracks and his words are shrill with desperation.

Shizuo has been patient and in control for all this time, but now that control slips. He gasps and instantly drives his cock completely into Izaya's body. For a moment, everything is still. Then his hands come away from Izaya's skin.

"Where?" he asks.

"Inside me," Izaya gasps. He feels every muscle in his body tense, feels himself go lightheaded with the amount of blood rushing to his cock. Already, Shizuo is speeding up the pace of his thrusts, getting a little rougher. The added friction nearly overwhelms them both.

Izaya doesn't last long. He throws his arms around Shizuo's neck, drags him down for a searing kiss. At the same time, Shizuo's cock hits something inside him that sets off a chain reaction. It's like a dam bursting inside of him, flooding him with so much heat and sensation that Izaya can barely think. He loses awareness for a long time as he comes.

In this half hazy state of awareness, Izaya feels Shizuo come inside him. The sensation makes his cock twitch, makes him want to arch his back and pull Shizuo closer, to wrap his legs around Shizuo's waist and moan in his ear. So he does, which makes Shizuo groan quietly, and makes his entire body shudder.

Izaya wants to give him the moon, wants to tell everyone that Shizuo is his favorite person in the world. He holds Shizuo tighter, his insides still throbbing from the phantom sensation of Shizuo's cock driving into him. Izaya presses little kisses against the side of his face, murmurs _I love you_ over and over again into his ear.

It takes a long time for his awareness to come back. They keep kissing, slow, languid, sometimes teasing kisses. Their bodies are trembling from exhaustion, but eventually that stops and they recover their breath.

Izaya tries to get up, but he goes dizzy immediately. With a laugh, Shizuo wraps an arm around him and pulls him under the covers. Izaya finds himself turned to face the wall as Shizuo presses more kisses into the back of his head and his shoulder. A wave of exhaustion hits him. He decides that sleep is a good idea after all.

.

Shizuo floats somewhere on the border of sleep and wakefulness.

He can sense Izaya's presence next to him - his scent, the sound of his breathing, the weight of his body on the mattress. Every now and again he surfaces enough to open his eyes, and see Izaya fast asleep in front of him. The sight fills his veins with little bursts of pleasure. Izaya rarely gets enough sleep as a college student, and Shizuo's early hours usually mean that they don't get to fall asleep together that often.

They have plans to start living together, after Izaya has graduated. It's just that his university has strict rules regarding current students living in dorms. It's a silly rule, but they've managed to make do. Shizuo loses himself in a dream, or daydream, of falling asleep and waking up together every day.

He feels a small shift at his side. Something brushes his arm. Out of habit, Shizuo reaches out, hooks an arm around whatever touched him, and pulls it to his chest.

Then he opens his eyes, startled. That weight had been entirely too light to be Izaya.

Against his chest, one cheek squished awkwardly, looking very surprised, is Kida Masaomi.

Shizuo instantly sits up, lifting Kida up by his armpits. Kida's bare feet dangle a few inches above the bedsheets.

"Sorry about that," Shizuo says quietly, to avoid waking Izaya up.

Kida just looks a bit nonplussed at being lifted up so easily. Shizuo sets him down on the floor next to the bed. Kida regains his balance rather easily.

"I'm thirsty," Kida informs him hesitantly. He is not sure whether this strange adult will be able to fix his problem, but all the other adults are gone or asleep, so he's making do. "Can I have some juice?"

"Oh," Shizuo says, relieved. They had juice cartons in the fridge. "Yeah, sure."

He eases himself off the bed, and is relieved that he remembered to put his clothes back on before taking an afternoon nap. Izaya is still fast asleep on his side, and doesn't even stir.

Kida follows him downstairs to the fridge. The stairs creak loudly under Shizuo's weight until he remembers to step more carefully. They hardly creak under Kida's weight at all.

At the fridge, Shizuo finds the juice easily. They came in large packs of eighteen, so he has to break them out of their larger container first. Then, Shizuo pulls out one of the juice boxes, sticks the straw in for Kida, and hands it to him.

Throughout it all, Kida has been waiting patiently. He is a lot calmer now than the hyper kid Shizuo had seen jumping on and off of the counter that morning. He is no longer scowling too. He's a little taller than Mikado, with a slightly thinner face and light brown eyes instead of light silver. He stares at Shizuo with a slightly uncertain expression as he drinks.

Shizuo smiles back. He hasn't really dealt with kids for a while, but at least this one doesn't seem to be too scared of him. He's a brave one.

"Your name is Kida, right?"

Kida nods. Shizuo gives him a little wave. "I'm Shizuo Heiwajima. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you," Kida mumbles back. He still looks a bit uncertain, though.

Shizuo decides to get some water for himself. He's a bit thirsty too, and maybe drinking together will dispel some of the awkwardness. And besides, Kida probably doesn't appreciate being stared at while he drinks his juice.

He comes back with a glass of water from the tap, and takes a few sips. Kida opens and closes his mouth a couple times.

"Are you married?" Kida asks.

Shizuo chokes on his water.

"No," he answers, after he has recovered enough to speak. He coughs several more times to clear his throat. "You mean me and Izaya?"

Kida nods. He's drinking out of his juice box as if he hasn't said anything out of the ordinary. A little crease of confusion now furrows his brows though.

"What's the matter?" Shizuo asks, even though, once again, he's not sure how he would help.

Kida looks up at him. "You're both boys," he says.

Shizuo barks a surprised laugh. Kida sounds so puzzled and innocent that it's hard _not_ to laugh. All of the tension eases right out of him. No wonder Kida had been so confused. He had probably only seen guys and girls together before.

"Yes," Shizuo clarifies. He smiles at Kida to let him know that the laughter wasn't at him, but because he was happy. "Yes, we're together, and we're both guys. That happens, sometimes."

It's hard to tell if Kida understands him or not. In any case, the boy soon finishes his juice box. Shizuo takes it from him, then shows him where the trash can is in the kitchen. It's behind a cabinet door, so it's a little hard to find.

"Thank you," Kida says politely. Shizuo reaches out to pat his head. He doesn't know why - it's just a habit he picked up from being around Izaya. It's his default way of saying _good job_ now.

Then, since Kida is too active to go back to sleep, Shizuo goes off to find something for him to do. The teacher has set aside a little corner of things to play with in the living room. One of the things there is a coloring book and a set of colored pencils. Shizuo snags it and brings it to the kitchen table, where he and Kida spend the rest of the afternoon coloring it in.


	3. The Snowball Fight

The next morning, Izaya is woken up by the sound of excited screaming coming from downstairs. When he gets out of bed and pulls open the shutters, he sees why. The world outside is covered in a fresh layer of snow, powdery and glistening in the sunlight. It's bright and sunny. These are the perfect conditions for a snowball fight.

"Come outside!" That sounds like Kida, who is already revving up his friends for a morning of fun. "Saki, you come too. It'll be fun!"

There's a quieter murmur, indistinct, probably a _no_. Shizuo says something, his words muffled but firm. A chorus of younger voices start clamoring in response.

Izaya comes down the stairs to find quite the tableau. Saki is at the kitchen table, swinging her legs and looking red-faced and upset. Anri is next to her, watching the boys. Mikado and Kida are clinging on to Shizuo, yelling at the top of their lungs. Kida has somehow climbed all the way on top of Shizuo's head, his legs around Shizuo's neck, his hands on Shizuo's forehead.

Shizuo catches sight of Izaya and instantly sends him a _please help me_ look.

"Good morning," Izaya says brightly. He goes over to Shizuo and, ignoring the two boys attached to him, kisses him on the cheek.

Kida immediately drops back down to the floor, yelling "eeeeew!"

Shizuo's face, to Izaya's delight, goes as red as a tomato. He gives Izaya a mortified look - _did you really have to do that?_ Izaya just blows him another kiss. _You asked for it, love._

"What's going on?" Izaya asks, now that he has the young ones sufficiently scandalized.

They all begin talking at once.

"Snowball fight!" Kida chants. Mikado instantly takes him up on it, and their voices join together into an impressive howl. "Snowball fight! Snowball fight! Snowball fight! Snowball fight!"

"The teacher left them with me," Shizuo explains. "She had to go to the hospital to figure some things out. They should be back in - "

"Can we go outside?" Anri asks, in a much quieter tone. "Heiwajima-san said that -"

"Be _quiet_!" Saki yells at the boys, and hearing her be so loud shocks everyone into temporary silence.

Five pairs of eyes turn toward her, and Saki goes completely red. Her bangs fall down to cover her face, and her downcast face make it hard to see her expression. Hopping out of her chair, she dashes into the living room.

Shizuo and Izaya look at each other.

_You want to take this?_ Shizuo asks silently. Izaya sighs. This is what he gets for bragging about being good with kids.

"Have you all eaten breakfast yet?" he asks. He gets a chorus of polite, subdued _no_ 's.

"Then eat first," Izaya says, just now catching sight of the spatula in Shizuo's hand and the row of sausages laid out on the counter. "Then, after all the dishes are clean, then _maybe_ we will have a snowball fight."

The room bursts into cheers. Shizuo lets out an exasperated sigh. Kida starts yelling in excitement again. Even Anri looks more animated than usual, leaning over to Shizuo and asking _so you'll join us too, right?_

Izaya leaves them to it, and goes off to find Saki.

Saki is huddled under a bunch of blankets that have been scattered around the air mattress in the living room. In the few spare moments she had in between running away from the kitchen and Izaya arriving, she has constructed some sort of fort.

The fort is big enough to house one small child. In between two chairs, underneath a fuzzy beige blanket, Saki stares out at him accusingly.

Izaya kneels down at the entrance of the fort. Now, sulky little girls, he _does_ have experience with.

"Hello," he says amiably. "Do you want some food?"

He holds out a little stick of dried fruit. Unsurprisingly, this catches Saki's definite interest. As with all animals and small children, food seems to be a surefire way to get started on the right foot.

"You must be hungry, right?" Izaya coaxes. "There's more food in the kitchen. Shizu-chan's making sausage and eggs."

Saki looks conflicted. Her nose scrunches up and she starts to look upset again. "I don't want to go back there," she says.

Izaya feigns ignorance. "Why?"

The corners of her mouth turn down. She mumbles something too indistinctly to be heard, but Izaya barely makes out the phrase "snowball fight".

Ah, so this _does_ have something to do with the snowball fight.

Izaya settles into a cross-legged sitting position, ducks his head a little so that he can see Saki's face a little more clearly.

"C'mere," he pats the space next to him. After a moment, hesitantly, Saki crawls out to join him.

"I'm scared," Saki confesses. "I don't wanna go outside."

"You don't have to," Izaya says. "You can stay indoors, read a picture book, or draw with crayons. Would you like to do that?"

Saki shakes her head, looking frustrated and on the edge of tears. "I want to go outside," she says.

With a sympathetic noise, Izaya pulls the blanket down and wraps it around her. He tries to think. What does _that_ mean? Both not wanting to go outside and wanting to go outside?

"Do you want to play with Kida-kun and the others?" He asks.

Saki nods. Izaya is beginning to put the pieces together now. "What are you scared of?" He asks. "Are you scared of them being mean?"

"No," Saki says. "I'm scared of the cold."

Izaya is temporarily stunned into silence.

_Oh_. How could he have missed this? He remembers Saki being the worst off of the children when they'd arrived, too cold to speak, too cold to even shiver. After such a horrible experience, who would ever like the cold again?

No wonder she had looked upset out there. All her friends, gearing up to play outside in the snow, going someplace she was too scared to follow.

Izaya scoots forward until they are face-to-face, and eye-level with each other.

"Saki," he says seriously. "There might be a way for you to stay warm _and_ play outside. If you want, I can tell you how. Would you like to be brave?"

Shizuo doesn't know how Izaya does it, but he shows up fifteen minutes later, with Saki holding his hand.

She bows as soon as she enters and yells "I'm sorry! Please let me join your snowball fight!" with all the earnest energy of a five-year-old. Then she joins back at the table, begins digging into her breakfast. The others clamor excitedly over the fact that she has finally agreed to play with them, and within minutes it's like the episode never happened.

Izaya comes up to him, grinning massively like _see what I did?_

Shizuo just wraps his arms around Izaya's waist and sneaks a kiss to his cheek when no one else is looking.

"Did you get anything to eat?" Izaya asks after a while. He feels comfortable, leaning into Shizuo's arms, all soft curves and warm smile. Shizuo ducks his head to press another kiss against Izaya's temple

"No," he replies. "How many eggs did you want?"

"Three. Is there any sausage left?"

"Yeah. I saved some for you."

Izaya gives him one of his brilliant, mesmerizing smiles, the kind that always makes Shizuo go warm and weak inside.

"Always looking out for me," he teases.

Shizuo wants to kiss him until he can't breathe.

They take special care in dressing the kids up to go outside. Everyone does a coat check. Everyone wears two shirts, one long sleeved shirt and a short sleeved shirt on top of it - Izaya's idea, for some extra layers. Everyone gets leggings if they have any, and warm waterproof pants on top of it. Thick woolen socks, check. Heavy woolen mittens, check.

They put on their hats last, over heat-flushed cheeks and tousled hair. Little fluffy poms dangle down from the sides, and soon the kids are more than distracted by the discovery that they can whip their heads back and forth to make the little tassels hit themselves in the face.

Then, as a final step, everyone puts on their winter boots. Shizuo has to help some of them do their laces, since they are so bundled up that they can't even bend over.

At last, Shizuo braces himself at the door and looks at the walking bundles of insulation behind him.

"Ready?"

"Ready!" they chorus back.

When he opens the door, it's not nearly as cold as any of them had expected. Saki looks relieved. Mikado and Masaomi whoop for joy and rush outside. Anri follows at a more sedate pace, tugging at her gloves and hat to make sure they're in place.

It's a bright and sunny morning, cloudless save for a could thin wisps at the edge of the horizon. The snow gleams perfect and untouched before them.

Masaomi makes no delay in throwing himself right into it. "Snowball fight!"

He's already balling up several clumps of snow into his fists. There's a fresh trail or tunnel behind him, almost six inches deep, showing his path from the front of the house to his current position.

Mikado is not far behind, having picked an ideal spot next to a large rock that provides some cover. He is already building up a store of ammunition as well.

Izaya comes out eventually, after finishing breakfast. He comes over to stand next to Shizuo, and raises his eyebrows at the two girls. Anri and Saki have decided to build a snowman right on the front porch.

It's still in its early stages. Shizuo has been showing them how to pack lots of snow into the shape of a ball, and then roll it around in the snow to make it bigger. Small half-formed spheres dot the front porch, as evidence of their previous attempts.

"Looks like someone has been busy."

Shizuo grins back at him. His face is a little flushed from being out in the snow, and he has taken off his hat to put on the snowman's head instead. Saki has gone off in search of sticks for arms. Anri has been given the task of collecting all the snow.

Anri pats her round snowball fondly. She has a slight, proud smile on her face. It is clearly the largest snowball they have achieved so far.

In the distance, Mikado's carefully aimed throw lands right on Kida's hat-covered head. They both fall over screaming in delight.

For a moment, the world around Izaya goes strangely still. He can feel Shizuo's eyes on him. He's somehow aware of where everybody is and what they're doing. It's chaos, but the best kind. His favorite kind.

He's stupidly fond of them all - Mikado with his infectious enthusiasm, Kida with his rambunctious leadership, Saki with her quiet bravery and Anri with her steady confidence. And Shizuo, a golden sun in the December snow, warm and too bright to look at sometimes, keeping them all safely within his orbit.

"You look like you have an idea," Shizuo says. "You have that look in your eyes. You just thought of something troublesome, didn't you?"

Izaya smiles at him, wide and innocent. "Not troublesome at all, I think."

"Alright, what is it?"

"Let's play a game."

The rules of the game are this:

There are two sides, and two hats. One person from each team must wear a special hat, with especially long tassels that make it easy to pull off. Whichever team manages to capture the other team's hat and put it on top of their team's hat-wearer's head, such that they are now wearing _two_ hats, wins.

Physical contact is not allowed, but if you are hit by a snowball, then you have to freeze for a couple seconds. The kids can freeze for one second. Shizuo and Izaya have to freeze for five seconds.

Yes, Izaya says, you are allowed to steal the hat back. The game doesn't end until one person is wearing two hats.

No, Izaya says, you don't have to restart the freeze timer if you get hit with a snowball when you're frozen. That's a good question, Anri, I can't believe you thought of that.

Alright, alright, Izaya finally says impatiently, it's hard to explain. Let's just play a round, shall we? No more questions!

He gives Shizuo a slightly hunted look here. He does _not_ remember asking this many questions as a child. Shizuo just shrugs back at him, but the corners of his mouth twitch a little, as if he's trying to hold back a laugh.

They draw teams with sticks, three long ones and three short ones, with Izaya holding them all in such a way as to make it impossible to tell which is which. Izaya, Mikado, and Saki are on one team. Shizuo, Kida, and Anri are on another.

"Where do we start?" Anri asks. Saki is already retreating to the front porch, intending to build a fort of some kind.

Shizuo picks her up, swinging her halfway down the slope. "We start down here," he marks a decent halfway point, and then reaches the other side of the yard, next to a cluster of rocks that will provide natural shelter.

The result is an open, flat plain with fresh, unmarked snow in between the two of them. This game will take many rounds, as they all build their own little trenches and pack the dug-up snow into snowballs. The kids start bouncing with excitement. Even Saki is getting into it, packing the gaps between the fences full of snow so that it provides better cover. Mikado is already mass-producing snowballs.

It's a sizable advantage. Izaya thinks they might stand a chance of winning.

They lose.

But, they only lose due to Shizuo's unfair strength, and his unreal accuracy with his snowballs. Izaya and Mikado and Saki had started out strong, hiding out in their fort until Kida and Anri had come charging out through the open plain. Neither of them were wearing the special hat, so Shizuo must be the one wearing it.

"Stick to the plan!" Izaya says, and then they all begin throwing snowballs.

Anri gets tagged first, so with a whoop, Saki climbs down to get a better angle, and begins peppering her with tiny snowballs that are easy to pick up and easy to fling. This has the effect of pinning them both down in place. Both Mikado and Izaya redouble their efforts on hitting Kida, who is a slippier target.

But Mikado does a risky thing, jumping down from the porch to act as bait. As Kida rushes forward to tackle him, Izaya nails him in a snowball right in the back.

"Sorry!" Mikado tells Kida, but he has a massive unrepentant grin on his face. He begins peppering Kida with tiny snowballs too.

Then, they all get taken down, all at once, by massive snowballs at least half a foot wide in diameter, launched from the opposite side of the field.

Everyone except for Izaya is knocked straight down, face planting into the snow. Even Izaya goes still out of instinct rather than rule-following, too stunned to react. _Where had that come from?_

On the other side of the field, Shizuo _cackles_.

Then another barrage comes, this time hitting Izaya but missing the others. It's too late, though. The distraction has freed Kida and Anri from their snowball prison, and now they are right in Izaya's team's midst.

And Kida is right next to Mikado, who is wearing their team's hat.

Kida snatches it with a whoop, and all the kids are off, running and screaming.

Another snowball whacks Izaya in the chest.

"Hey!" Izaya indignantly. But there's the five second rule, and he can't move. And now he can't give chase either.

Mikado and Saki give chase as fast as they can, but with Kida's head start, it's impossible to catch back up.

The game is over fast, with Kida slapping the hat lopsidedly on Shizuo's head. Shizuo has kept Izaya at bay this entire time, missing only one snowball out of ten. Izaya hasn't even made it halfway across the field.

"We WON!" Kida screams, and the sound of Shizuo's answering roar of triumph echoes in the fields.

"Okay," Izaya says to his little army. All the kids have gathered around him, and there is a fire in their eyes that only comes from having tasted defeat one time too many.

Shizuo has turned out to be a monster during snowball fights, with unerring accuracy and way too much damn strength to overcome alone. After his teams won the first round, then the second, then the third, and on and on, it was clear that reaching Shizuo's head was near impossible. By now the kids are completely obsessed with winning this game. No, not even winning the game. They just want to take Shizuo down.

They have redrawn the teams, one more time, to have Shizuo on one side and everybody else on the other.

"I'll wear the hat. I'm gonna be a distraction," Izaya says. He has the most agility, he thinks he can avoid getting hit with a snowball for a couple of minutes. This time at least, hopefully. In any case, his job is to hold out for as long as possible. "You four - " he points, "are going to do something called a _sneak attack._ "

In a few, simple sentences, he explains what they're about to do. When he's done, the kids are bouncing up and down with eagerness. It's a good plan. Izaya thinks it will work.

"Are you ready?" Shizuo's voice booms over from the other side of the trench, loud and challenging. There's a little cackle of laughter in his voice; he's having fun being the uncontested snowball fight king. Izaya shivers. _Maybe_ it will work.

He gives the kids a little shove, hisses: " _Go, go go go!_ " They all scatter.

Izaya pops up out of the snow. Immediately, he ducks a snowball that would have gotten him in the face. "No fair, Shizu-chan!" He quickly tosses one of his own snowballs back. "I haven't said _go_ yet!"

He has, he's lying, but hey, they need every advantage that they can get.

"It's been long enough," Shizuo retorts. "I'm starting in ten seconds! Ten! Nine!"

Izaya hurriedly dashes off to find some better cover. It's a little like the old times, his agility versus Shizuo's strength. His best chance to keep his hat on his head is to stay hidden, but then that would mean that the kids would be sneaking up on a wary Shizuo.

So, he pops out of the snow, chucks a snowball at Shizuo right as Shizuo hits the count of one. The snowball lands right in the center of his chest, freezing him in place for five seconds.

Izaya can't resist. He gives Shizuo a flirtatious wave from the other side of the front porch, taunting Shizuo in plain sight.

"Catch me if you can~" he sings, then his five seconds are up. Izaya turns to _run._

The tricky part, Izaya reflects, is not getting hit at all. Not even once. If he gets hit just once, then Shizuo can lock him down easily. If he is always moving, however, Shizuo can't catch him.

It's a near thing, though. Izaya has the advantage of being able to watch the skies, and being able to predict the trajectory of the incoming target and dodge accurately. This is only possible because Shizuo can't move closer, since he is the only person on his team and so he has to be the one wearing the hat. And also, since he is the only threat, Izaya can keep his eyes to the sky, and not worry about attacks from any other direction.

"Stay STILL so I hat hit you!" Shizuo yells.

"Not a chance!" Izaya yells back, and dodges a particularly well-aimed throw.

_Well,_ he thought to himself. _It seems that Shizuo can completely neutralize me and all my plans. But now the question is: can I neutralize him?_

Shizuo has begun to develop an easy rhythm. Pack a snowball, launch, hit. Snowball, launch, hit. Win. Easy.

He's feeling more on top of his game than ever before. His muscles burn with a steady warmth. He feels like a well-oiled machine. He can see everything that happens a couple seconds before it actually does.

Izaya dodges left, Shizuo aims a little higher than usual. Izaya was telling the truth, all those years ago. He _is_ fast, even on an open field.

Then Izaya dodges right, eyes watching the sky. But he can only track one target at once, so he completely misses the second snowball that comes out of nowhere, and nails him right in the chest.

"Ha!" Shizuo yells, exhilarated. " _Gotcha!_ "

Then, he thinks. _Wait a second. Where are the -_

" _Gotcha!_ " Kida howls from behind him, pouncing on him from a nearby snowdrift.

He is absolutely covered in snow, having dug his way through in order to come up on Shizuo unseen. He has a tiny snowball in his hand, which he unceremoniously stuffs down Shizuo's shirt. Immediately, on his heels, Anri, Mikado, and Saki pop out. They grab onto his legs, and almost as an afterthought, start stuffing his clothes with little icy snowballs as well.

Shizuo is actually pretty impressed. While Izaya has been distracting him, all four kids have made a wide circle around him, and have attacked him from his blind spot. They have actually circled _behind_ the house, completely out of his view, in order to get this close.

And he had allowed himself to get distracted, like a fool.

He supposes that a good strategy deserves a reward. He falls dramatically onto his face, sprawling into the snow, the kids climbing onto him to celebrate their victory. The hat is forgotten in their mad dash to pepper him with as many snowballs as possible.

"I yield!" He tells them, just before Izaya has made it across the field too.

"I yield, I yield!" But Izaya pretends not to hear, and piles on top of him as well.

"Gotcha," Izaya says. They smile at each other, with the kids laughing and screaming all around them.

Shizuo thinks that snowball fights might just be one of his favorite things in the world.


	4. The Winter Resort

The next day, the Niigotas and the teacher come back with good news: the hotel company is agreeing to pay for all hospital bills. Also, they've found a new place for the class to stay. A brand new luxury hotel lodge, which hasn't been opened to the public yet, has been offered as a replacement to the destroyed lodge.

"See?" Shizuo elbows Izaya in the ribs. "It all worked out, just like I said it would."

Izaya is not the least bit mollified. "They should still tell the local city council," he says, crossing his arms. "Having a roof collapse from snowfall is really bad. It's definitely a building code violation. Not to mention, there were people inside. Kids, too. This whole thing is a bribe in exchange for not going to the authorities and reporting them."

"I'm sure it is," Shizuo grins. "But guess what? They offered us a lodge too."

This gets Izaya's interest. "Really?"

Mr. Niigota had apparently explained their situation as well. There were apparently several luxury hotel lodges that were being built, and one was being offered to them as a separate bribe.

"I'll take it," Izaya says without hesitation.

Shizuo tries to give him an exasperated look, but ends up laughing instead.

  
  


"You're welcome to stay for longer," Ms. Niigota tells them. "At least come over for New Years. I'll make enough food for all of you."

They accept her offer gratefully, and get the information from the hotel. Their new place, after all is said and done, is only half an hour away from the wooden lodge they had originally intended to stay at. It's on a sort of campus, one with multiple lodges all along the side of a lake. The kids and the teachers apparently got one of the places nearby.

"We'll see you there," Izaya reassures them. "How about this, when we get there, we can show you our place, and you can show us yours. Sounds good?"

Mikado accepts that promise reluctantly, and Izaya sets him back down into the ground. He goes of running somewhere as soon as his feet touch the ground. He has a full three layers on - a jacket, a coat, and then a large green winter coat on top of all of that. He looks ready to go out into the cold.

"I can't thank you enough," the teacher repeats to the Niigotas. She's still a bit frazzled from driving back and forth between here and the hotel constantly. Shizuo still hasn't caught her name. "I don't know what we could have done without your kindness."

"Don't worry about it," Mr. Niigota replies warmly. "Out here, we all have to look out for each other."

With that, Shizuo and Izaya both bundle into Shizuo's car. The kids go into a large van that the teacher drives. They all take much longer to get settled with seat belts and seat arrangements and everything. Shizuo and Izaya start off first.

In the driver's seat, Shizuo looks at Izaya.

"You got the directions?" he asks.

Izaya taps the GPS that comes with the car. "This has all the directions," he replies, and shows that he has the address typed in. "If we drive off a cliff, blame it, not me."

Shizuo barks a laugh, then starts the car. The engine purrs to life with a loud rumble. Izaya puts his hands gratefully against the vent where warm air starts blowing out.

"Alright," Shizuo says. "Let's go."

  
  


It takes them a while to realize that they've arrived.

The whole complex is like a massive lakeside park, with a low, flat building for registration and a gate that leads into a road with multiple buildings further down.

It all looks relatively new, as if not many people have been here before. The gravel is all fresh and unturned, no tire tracks or animal marks on it yet. Even the snow here looks untouched despite being several days old.

Izaya goes into the registration building to get the keys to the lodge, and comes back with that and a handful of pamphlets.

"Here," he says, setting all the pamphlets down on the dashboard. "In case we run out of ideas of what to spend money on, every restaurant within fifty miles is apparently claiming to be a tourist attraction."

"We can go to a few," Shizuo smiles at him. "The local food is apparently pretty special, according to my parents. We should try a few."

Izaya gives him a look. "We can just go to the Niigotas for that, you know."

"I know," Shizuo protests, as they drive past the gate and into the complex. "But shouldn't we support the local economy? We _are_ tourists, you know."

Izaya reaches over to tug fondly at Shizuo's ear. "This is why you'll never be rich," he chides. "It's all a scam. Don't fall for their tourist traps."

"And you're good with money?" Shizuo asks, grinning.

He is the one with the job, but Izaya loves acting as if he is the wealthier one. He is far more knowledgeable about banks and credit cards and their policies, so for the most part Shizuo does defer to Izaya's advice. But Shizuo thinks Izaya secretly just likes crunching numbers and managing investments.

"Of course I am," Izaya replies flirtatiously.

"What if I want to spend money on you?"

"Spend it on other things," Izaya replies immediately. "Like gas, or rent. Or save it for retirement."

"Wow, how responsible."

Izaya flashes him a sideways grin, sharp and teasing. "Once I get a job, I'll outearn you, and then _I'll_ be the one paying for all our fancy dinners. How does that sound?"

It's an old taunt of his, one he often brings up whenever Shizuo spends money on him.

_You work too hard anyway_ , Izaya has often told him. Cajoled him, really. _When I get a job I'll make enough for the both of us._

They've arrived at their new lodge, so Shizuo parks and turns off the engine before replying. "I really don't mind buying you dinner, Izaya."

Izaya stretches in the passenger seat, but makes no move to get out. "I know," he sighs.

Suddenly, though, he's serious. This _does_ bother him, a little.

"I just can't help keeping track of all the things you've done for me," he says, "The dinners, the groceries, all our dates and even this trip. You're covering it all, and it just feels unfair. I know I'm a student, but we're the same age. We should be equals. And yet here I am, always letting you pay for things."

Shizuo goes silent too. He wonders how to tell Izaya that he _wanted_ to spend money on him, wanted to buy things for him all the time. He has never really had a lot of money before, and now that he's working, he has more than he knows what to do with.

So he reaches over, and pinches Izaya's cheek.

Izaya gives him such an offended look that Shizuo nearly laughs, but instead he says, "Too bad."

" _Oi!_ " Izaya bats at his arm, and Shizuo withdraws his hand, chuckling. "What was _that_ for?"

"You were being silly," Shizuo informs him.

"Was _not_!" But his childish tone speaks for himself, and Izaya gives up his temporary worry. He pushes the car door open, hops out. "This is a serious matter, you know!"

"I know," Shizuo says, coming around the other side of the car. "And I'm telling you, you're being silly."

Izaya huffs indignantly. Shizuo wonders if he'll ever stop finding it so amusing: Izaya, who is at the top of his class, the aloof, charming boy that has so many female classmates moon-eyed and starstruck, being called silly and acting like a child.

"How long have we been together?" Shizuo asks.

"Five years four months," Izaya replies without hesitation.

"And how much happiness do you think you've given me, during that time?"

This is a bit harder to calculate, so Izaya falls silent.

"It's not that hard," Shizuo says. He reaches out to take Izaya's hand, to pull him out of his thoughts and unnecessary logic.

Trying to apply logic to emotion is, in Shizuo's mind, like trying to find the opposite of one thing in another, like trying to find black in white. Izaya is usually so clever with these things, but even he gets it wrong sometimes.

"The answer is - stop worrying about it. You can always make it up to me later, and it's just money. What are you trying to do? Come up with a number? Tell me any number, and I'll tell you it's too low."

"The answer is infinity," Izaya says cheekily, but he gives Shizuo a fond, helpless smile as he says it.

"Fine," Shizuo rolls his eyes. He tugs at Izaya's hand to get him moving and out of the cold. "Fine, you win. I'm glad you see my point. Let's get out of the cold already, and see what this place is like."

  
  


The hotel company was not kidding when they said that this was a luxury lodge.

Once they enter through the front door, they're greeted by a sparkling clean interior - the kind of clean that comes from having no occupants before, ever. There's a stairway a little to their right, a wide hallway into a kitchen, and another wide opening to a living room directly to their right. Everything looks all sharp and clean, perfectly rounded angles on the staircase banister, straight lines on the wooden floor below.

They don't have much to unload from their car, just their packed bags and some food. They leave it all in the entryway, next to their shoes, as they go off to explore the place.

It has a rather simple layout. Two floors, separated by a winding wooden staircase. On the first floor is an entryway with a fancy coat rack, a large kitchen, a door to a snowy balcony outside, a living room with a couch and a TV and a fireplace in it, and a bathroom off to one side. Everything looks picture-perfect. With the fireplace on and the snow piling onto the balcony outside, this would look like one of the coziest places in the world.

Izaya goes over to the windows, two of them overlooking the balcony into the bright world outside. There is a thick layer of trees at the back of this house, on the side not facing the driveway. In the distance, however, he thinks he sees the frozen shine of a lake.

"How much do you think a place like this usually costs?" Izaya asks. He's wandering around the room, trailing his fingers against the back of the black leather couch. It feels expensive and soft. He wonders if it's not really leather after all. There's all sorts of new material being used in furniture nowadays.

"It's free, as far as I'm concerned."

"No, really," Izaya insists. "Now that I think about it, this is probably where all the money was spent, instead of hiring someone to take care of their other lodges."

"What do you mean?"

"The hotel company. They must have really invested in this whole compound, instead of maintaining their other lodges. Like the one we were supposed to stay at."

Shizuo shrugs. "Their mistake."

Izaya lets it go. 

"Any other complaints about our free lodge?" Shizuo asks.

"I'm a little cold."

"There should be a thermostat."

"I know. Do you see one?"

"Maybe. Is this one?"

They both puzzle over a white attachment to the wall in the entryway. Shizuo fiddles with it until the bottom half slides open, revealing more buttons to press and thankfully, more instructions.

"There we go," Shizuo says, satisfied, and blasts the heat on.

Izaya does another go-around in their new lodge, checking everything from the faucets to the stove tops, the drawers and the waste disposal system. Apparently, his trust in the hotel company has hit rock bottom. If there's anything else wrong, he's determined to find it. Shizuo let's him circle around as many times as he wants.

Eventually, though, Izaya circles back to him, in this tight space they've made for each other in between the sofa and the wall. It's still bright out, with the shades drawn and mid morning g sunlight shining through the windows. Little dust motes spin and drift aimlessly in the sunbeams. It will warm up eventually, even without help from the heater, just from the amount of sunlight pouring in.

There's nothing left to explore, so they just look at each other.

Shizuo gestures, arms out, offering a hug.

Izaya steps forward into his arms. He is slightly chilled, but not shivering. It's a pleasant contrast to Shizuo's overheated skin.

"Done exploring?"

"Yeah."

"How do you like it?"

"I like it." Izaya smiles into Shizuo's shoulder. "I like it a lot."

His arms come up around Shizuo's waist. Shizuo sets his chin on the top of Izaya's head.

"What do you wanna do?"

"I don't know," Izaya replies. "Were we _not_ planning to fuck on every available surface?"

" _Izaya_!"

"What?"

"This place is a rental!"

"From a company that tried to cheat us!"

Shizuo cracks up. He can't help it. Izaya watches him, delighted that he seems to be winning Shizuo over.

"Isn't it tradition?" he asks, grinning. "When you get a new home. To break it in, or whatever."

"Really?"

"Think of it as a practice run," Izaya's fingers are dancing along his collarbones, playing with the collar of his jacket. Shizuo thinks that in all the world, there has never been anybody who has put up less resistance to a seduction than he is putting up now.

He catches Izaya's wrist.

He wants to kiss it, and every other inch of skin he can reach. He wants to cage Izaya in between his arms and stare lovingly at him until the sun goes down. He wants to hold Izaya and never let go, to take him in every way he knows how.

"Where do you want to start?" Shizuo asks. "The couch or the floor?"

There is something madly contagious about Izaya's answering childlike glee. Shizuo can't help but grin back when he sees it on Izaya's face. He would follow that smile to the ends of the earth.

Izaya pretends to consider for a moment, his fingers idly tapping his lips, and then stroking along the side of Shizuo's neck like an indirect kiss. Soft touches and warm looks directed up at him through feathery lashes, and Shizuo is helpless to it all. He feels a wave of goose flesh spread down his neck and back.

"You drove," Izaya decides magnanimously. "So you get to choose. I'll do whatever you want me to do."

Shizuo doesn't even try to hold back. He kisses Izaya's lips, licking in and tasting the words before they have a chance to form. They feel warm and velvet-soft, a little bit chapped from the cold dry air. Shizuo wants with a hunger immense enough to drown out all the details of the rest of the world. He bites down softly and tastes fireworks behind his teeth.

"That's a dangerous thing to promise," Shizuo breathes. "Are you sure about that?"

His fingers trail up Izaya's sides, suggesting something to be afraid of but not really threatening it. Izaya's breath goes shallow. Shizuo can hear it, and knows without looking that Izaya's eyes are dark and gorgeous with heat. A burst of pleasure goes through him, sharp satisfaction and desperate want.

Izaya doesn't answer. Shizuo doesn't wait for him to. This entire time, he has been backing Izaya up, little by little. The back of Izaya's knees hit the side of the couch.

Izaya barely has enough time to gasp. His arms come up around Shizuo's neck, clinging onto him for support. Then they're both toppling over, bodies pressed so tightly together that Shizuo can feel the thrum of Izaya's pulse, the catch in his breath.

The couch doesn't creak, but it does protest a little under their sudden weight. Izaya makes a muffled cry as he lands on his back, muffled because Shizuo is on top of him, covering him completely with his body and mouth and hands. He should probably stop and pull away, to check if Izaya landed alright. But the arch of Izaya's back and the tension of his fingers in Shizuo's hair is all encouragement, all _please don't stop_ , and _more_ , and helpless, unthinking, overwhelmed pleasure.

Shizuo doesn't give him time to recover. He shifts Izaya's legs to either side of him. Izaya's thighs are warm around his waist. He wants to spend an eternity distracting himself with fingers trailing across Izaya's skin, and kisses against the side of his neck. Instead, he holds Izaya's hips down and grinds slowly against him, easing up on the pressure from his lips until they are just grazing each other's lips with the lightest possible touch. He slows down, kissing deeply with his tongue licking possessively into Izaya's mouth.

Izaya is a little out of it, breath shallow, eyes wide and a bit empty. Shizuo's vision nearly clouds over with want. Whenever Izaya is like this, whenever Shizuo fucks into him like this, his cries sound so sweet that Shizuo forgets about dessert for a week, and his body feels like a drunken man's wildest dream.

They lose themselves in each other for a long while, heedless of the time. There is nothing else in the world that demands their attention now. So they give all of their attention to each other.

  
  


Later, after the sun has gone down and they have happily wasted the entire day together, Izaya gets up to turn the lights on.

"I wonder if this is what it feels like to be rich," Shizuo comments from the couch. He gets up too, and goes over to the windows. They have no shades, and they're huge.

Izaya supposed that they're lucky that no one else seems to be living in that direction. He had completely forgotten about the windows and the possibility that someone might have seen them.

"I guess privacy is one thing that rich people get a lot of," Izaya laughs. "But I'll admit. This place _is_ really, really nice. Watch this."

He turns on the lights, and immediately the dark view of the forest outside disappears. The room becomes this bubble of coziness that has somehow become a home for both of them

Shizuo turns around. Behind him, the huge windows are a black reflective mirror, showing the bright interior instead of the dark outside. It turns the whole room into a space that seems twice as large as it actually is, and Shizuo is at the center of it all, reveling in all of it.

Izaya decides that when he starts making money, he is going to save all of it. He's going to invest it, not spend a dime, and watch it grow. That way, one day, he will be able to buy a house. One with windows that go all the way from the floor to the ceiling, and covers the entire wall.


	5. The Snowbank

The second floor turns out to be entirely unfinished, bare wooden floors and empty walls, good bones, but no furniture whatsoever.

Izaya holds onto the railing at the top of the stairs and laughs and laughs and laughs.

Then he sees the incredulous look on Shizuo’s face at the realization that they don’t have a bedroom. That sets him laughing all over again.

"What are we gonna do?" Shizuo asks. His face is caught between genuine incredulity that the hotel company has fucked up, yet again, and a growing awareness that Izaya probably shouldn’t be laughing so hard, if he wants to breathe anytime soon.

Izaya doesn’t answer. He’s still howling with laughter.

"Izaya, _really_." Shizuo coughs to keep himself from laughing too. He struggles to keep a straight face. "We don’t have a place to sleep."

As soon as he finishes, Izaya breaks out into fresh new peals of laughter, going to his knees, hanging on to the staircase railing. Shizuo is seriously starting to worry about him now. But he can’t stay near him, or else he’s going to be caught up in the laughter too, and once they both get going it becomes a feedback loop. He pats Izaya on the back, to make him breathe once, and then decides that Izaya has to recover from this on his own.

"I wonder if the couch is a pull-out couch," he starts back down the stairs. Izaya takes another couple of seconds to stop laughing. He ends up sitting weakly at the top of the stairs, peering down through the railings at the living room.

"Is it?" Izaya asks hoarsely.

Shizuo shakes his head up at him.

"It is a very nice couch though."

Izaya sobers up. He leans against the topmost step. "I could call the hotel company," he says. "We could ask for a futon, at the very least."

"I don’t want to bother them."

"They _should_ be bothered. Do you think that class of kids got a lodge like this? Would you want all of _them_ to sleep on a couch?"

Shizuo nods, giving him the point. He looks around.

"Better find out what else we’re missing," he says. "Just so we’re not making multiple calls."

"Good idea." Izaya stands up to go check the bathrooms upstairs. As he expected, there are no bath towels or shower curtains or anything. The upper floor is entirely bare.

It would be a little creepy, if not for the fact that it all looks so clean and pristine. No chance of any ghosts here. It just looks like a half-painted picture, an unfinished piece. With some curtains and some furniture, a bed here, a table there, light fixtures in strategic corners and soft blankets and rugs on the ground, this place would be just as cozy as downstairs had been.

He hears Shizuo come up the stairs behind him. Without looking, he says, "I think we’ll need towels and bathroom supplies too. I know we brought some, but hotels should usually provide these things anyway."

"I checked the bathroom downstairs," Shizuo said. "They have all that stuff there, but there’s no shower curtain. Are we allowed to ask for a shower curtain?"

Izaya drops his attention from the window, turns around. Shizuo is leaning against the doorframe, looking at him in the empty bedroom, looking faintly amused.

There had been no need to turn the light on, since there is enough sunlight coming in through the windows. But Shizuo flicks the lights on anyway, then flicks them off, after seeing that it didn’t make much of a difference.

"I think we should ask for everything," Izaya suggests. "It’s not like they can kick us out, right after they’ve given us the keys to this place."

"They definitely can."

"Yeah, but will they?"

Shizuo gives a half shrug, as if saying _you’ll be the one to figure that out, not me_.

"I’ll do it in the morning," Izaya sighs, and follows Shizuo down the stairs.

They end up sleeping on the couch. And truth be told, Izaya doesn’t really mind.

  
  
  


Over the next few days, their schedule fills up again with more normal vacationing activities. They drive over to the fish market in the mornings, where stalls and stalls display their freshest catches and their most delicious food. Bright banners snap in the wind, and the air is filled with loud chatter.

Shizuo thought that he must have eaten every form of fish imaginable, prepared in every conceivable way. Then, the next day, Izaya drags him to a different stall, and he is proven wrong.

They do end up going to a couple restaurants in the area, those highly recommended or those that catch their interest.

They end up going to an ice sculpture festival. Huge blocks of ice and snow carted in to a huge outdoor space. Some are still in progress, with sculptors hammering away at the ice with chisels and tools of all kinds. Blocks of more snow lay next to them, ready to be added and carved into smaller decorative pieces.

There’s one of a huge carp twisting it’s way out of a frozen flat lake, its icy scales glittering in the sunlight. There’s one of a woman with long flowing hair and flowers across her rippling dress that looks like it is made of water rather than ice. There’s one of a huge castle, complete with perfect tiny replicas of pagodas and miniature trees, surrounded by a wall of snow carved with every brick and arch detailed exquisitely. That one is Shizuo’s favorite, but he and Izaya spend a long time staring at the carp jumping out of the frozen lake. There’s just something about it that neither can pinpoint.

They end up going ice skating, with the kids on their school trip. There’s a huge frozen lake a couple minutes away from them all, doubtless one of their compounds many winter attractions. They spend a whole afternoon wheeling about on the slippery ice, falling over, and having fun.

It seems like, despite the hectic beginning of their winter vacation, everything has finally settled down after all.

  
  
  


"Izaya!" Shizuo calls out from the kitchen. "I think we’re out of food again."

Izaya’s head pops up from the couch, where he has been laying down and working for the past hour. He doesn’t have that many assignments due, but he also wants to do some of the assigned reading while he can. In any case, he’s eager for a distraction.

"I can go to the store," he says. He stands up and stretches, leaving his computer on the couch. He pads over to the kitchen and checks inside the fridge as well.

It is indeed empty. Other than a half carton of eggs, everything else has already been eaten. There is still rice in the cabinets and seasoning on the counter, but they have money now and don’t have to eat cheap; tamago gohan is good, but they can eat fancier things for their long awaited vacation.

Izaya is already drawing up a mental list of what to buy. He feels like hotpot tonight, and he is pretty sure the store sells little portions of fish balls and thin lamb and beef slices, enoki mushrooms and tofu skin. Then tomorrow they can probably make curry for both lunch and dinner, which means beef and carrots and potatoes and spice packets. He should probably also get some kimchi, since it goes so well with everything, and more eggs, of course, and some drinks as well.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Shizuo asks.

Izaya shakes his head and gives him a fond smile. "You went last time," he says.

He goes off to find socks and shoes, a jacket and a coat to protect him from the cold and the wind. It feels a little like he’s assembling pieces of armor, but really all he’s doing is defending himself from winter. He heads out, tossing his car keys in one hand.

"Drive safe!" Shizuo calls from the couch, where he has taken up Izaya’s spot.

"Be back soon!" Izaya calls back.

  
  
  


The road conditions are a little rough, due to a heavy snowstorm last night. Snow plows had been clearing the road nonstop, piling up the accumulated snow onto the sides of the roads. On both sides, between the edge of the road and the white snow banks, there are large ditches that bear imprints of massive wheels.

It’s funny, Izaya reflects. Driving is probably his least favorite way of getting around. Trains are probably his favorite. For Shizuo, Izaya thinks that walking must be his favorite way to get around. Shizuo usually prefers walking to places rather than taking any form of public transportation. Even if it takes him twice as long, he doesn’t seem to mind it.

In the small enclosed space, Izaya wonders if his parents had felt like this - satisfied and amused, going somewhere and enjoying the view. He wonders what it would be like to have Shizuo at his side, and possibly little ones to ferry around in the back. It’s strange. He remembers being bored out of his mind on the road trip to Aomori last time, but now he looks back on it fondly. Maybe it’s because driving is more interesting than being a passenger.

Shizuo learned how to drive first. His company had paid for his lessons, since Shizuo would often be driving their clients around as part of their security detail. Izaya had only gotten his license recently.

Izaya frowns. It’s getting a little foggier, now that he’s a little higher up on the mountain road. He turns the headlights down a little, so that the light doesn’t reflect off of the mist and blind him.

Something blasts his eardrums. It sounds like an air horn has gone off right next to his ear. Izaya jolts as a massive shape appears out of nowhere, looming out from the mist.

There’s a sickening _crunch_ of tires against something that is not pavement. Izaya fights to hold on to the steering wheel, the world veers dizzily off to one side, then -

Everything goes still. The sound fades from Izaya’s ears slowly, leaving a strange stuffy feeling in its wake, as if a rag had been pushed into his ears.

The car is tilted, but to Izaya’s relief, he finds himself merely having driven into a snowbank. The crunch had been the sound of the car breaking through several layers of packed snow.

It takes him several breaths to recover. Slowly, Izaya takes his hands off the steering wheel. He was on the side of the road closer to the uphill slope of the mountain. There doesn’t seem to be any danger of the car falling down any further. For the first time since that sound had entered his eardrums, Izaya begins to breathe.

  
  
  


It takes him a couple more minutes to assess the damage.

Luckily, the car is fine. No visible scratches, no broken pieces. The car is about a foot away from the road, and a short trail of tire prints show where Izaya has veered off of it and into the snowbank. It’s also facing parallel to the road, but here is where the problems begin.

The front tires have sunk almost entirely through the packed snow. The right side is a couple inches lower than the right side, and the front of the car is blocked by a huge buildup of snow that it needs to drive to in order to get back onto the road.

Izaya calls himself an idiot a couple of times, and then a few more times for good measure. But feeling stupid doesn’t make the car move, so eventually he climbs in and tries to start the car.

The car starts just fine. But when Izaya presses on the gas pedal, it doesn’t budge an inch.

For a moment, panic threatens to overwhelm him. It’s starting to get cold in the car, and Izaya doesn’t dare leave the heater on in case he uses up all the gas. Cold curls it’s fingers around the glass windows and through the gaps in the doors, threatening to freeze all of his movements.

After determining one more time that the car won’t budge, not even with Izaya out in front trying to make a path by trying to tamp down the snow or push it out of the way, Izaya gives up.

In the car, for the second time this trip, he calls for backup.

"Hey," Shizuo’s voice is warm but concerned. He picks up on something wrong instantly. "What happened?"

Izaya squeezes his eyes shut. "I… may have gotten into a car accident."

" _What?_ "

"I’m okay! The car is fine too -"

"Where are you?"

"I was on the highway. I didn’t even make it past the first left turn."

"Hey," Shizuo’s voice stops him short, before Izaya can devolve into panic again. "It’ll be fine."

"I know," Izaya whispers. "But please, please hurry."

  
  
  


By the time Shizuo gets there, Izaya’s situation has already gathered some attention from some people passing by.

"It’s those large trucks," one man is saying. "You have to be careful on the bends around here, the visibility is so bad."

"It’s pretty common," another woman agrees. "Usually the truck drivers are pretty careful, but this one must have thought that you were going too fast."

Izaya is standing off the side of the road, arms wrapped around himself, looking anxious.

"You’re right," he says with a rueful twist to his mouth. "I don’t know these roads that well. I should have been more careful."

"It’ll be fine! Well, once we get this chain attached, we should be able to pull your car right out."

Just then, Izaya catches sight of Shizuo. His expression becomes a mixture of guilt and relief.

"I’m so sorry for calling you out here -" he starts, but Shizuo just sweeps him up in a hug.

"I’m just glad you’re okay." He inspects Izaya for any injuries, but Izaya just seems shaken. His smile is a little more wobbly than usual, his eyes a little wider.

"I might have been able to get some help after all," Izaya turns to the couple, who have been spooling out a large heavy rope from the back of their trunk. "They say they’ve done this before. They just need to attach a rope to the front of my car and pull, and that should be enough to get me back on the road."

"Okay, that’s great!"

"I’m sorry for calling you out here."

"It’s fine." Shizuo squeezes tighter to show that it really is fine, then lets Izaya go.

  
  
  


It is a bit harder than they expected to dig the car out of the snow, even with the help of another car.

Izaya sits in the driver's seat and floors the gas pedal when he is instructed to. But the snow is too deep, and the car lurches a little, but doesn’t do more than that.

After a while of this, Shizuo decides that he needs to step in after all. He calls for the couple driving the other car to stop. Then he goes around to the front of the car.

"You might want to get out for this," he says to Izaya. Izaya hops out easily, having left the driver door open.

"Are you sure?" Izaya asks.

"We’ll see," Shizuo grunts, dogging his fingers under the front of the car. Then, he lifts.

At first, the grip is awkward, his footing is uneven, he doesn’t have a good angle. Some of the snow has frozen to the underside of the car and is acting a bit like glue, sticking the car to the ground. Shizuo sets his teeth, _shoves_ , and -

The front of the car comes free amidst a shower of snow.

Slowly, more so for the car’s sake than his own, Shizuo backs up onto the main road, half-pulling, half-dragging the car along with him.

The couple in the other car have their jaws on the ground. Izaya respectfully thanks them for their help and the chain, but when he turns to face Shizuo, there’s a look of hidden glee on his face.

"I didn’t know you could do that."

Shizuo makes a noncommittal sound. "I didn’t either."

Izaya’s grin grows a fraction wider. "Always full of surprises, aren’t you, Shizu-chan?" But his tone is fond. He looks delighted, still on edge, but with the tension bleeding away from him visibly.

Shizuo ends up blushing at the open adoration on Izaya’s face. He doesn’t get to see that expression often.

"I owe you a favor that I might never repay," Izaya tells him grandly, like a king bestowing a blessing. "Tell me what you want, and I’ll give you anything. Would you like a feast for dinner? For me to act as your devoted servant for a day?"

"I don’t need any of that," Shizuo tells him. "Just keep yourself safe, and that’s enough for me."

Izaya gives him an exasperated, pleased look, then throws his arms around him.

"You - " he squeezes as tight as he can, nearly pulling Shizuo off to the side with his sudden weight. " _Aggh,_ you’re too good to me. You _can_ be selfish sometimes, you know."

Shizuo just leans into him, and hugs back, before realizing that Izaya is still trembling. The crash must have shaken him up more than it seemed. He squeezes tighter.

"Thank you," Izaya says, quiet enough for his words to get muffled. "Thank you for always coming to find me."


	6. New Years

"Did you know? In Spain they have a tradition of eating twelve grapes in the twelve seconds before the new year."

"Really?"

"And in America, they drop a ball in the last ten seconds."

"Why ten seconds instead of twelve?"

"I don't know. We've always counted down the last three seconds, right?"

Izaya giggles at the look on Shizuo's face. They are all at Mr. and Ms. Niigota's place again, for the new year. The kotatsu is crowded in front of the TV, and it's surface is filled with small plates of half-shelled peanuts and persimmons and - the cause of this discussion - grapes.

"How many grapes do you think you could fit in your mouth?"

"I don't know." Shizuo goes to try. "Maybe thirty or forty?"

" Thirty or  _ forty? _ "

"It's just a guess!"

"There's one minute left," Ms. Niigota calls out. She and her husband are not the only ones here. There are a lot of people milling about that they don't know - neighbors and friends, each holding a drink in their hands and chatting amiably.

Shizuo's hand hovers near the grapes. "Should I do it?"

"Well, it's up to you."

Decision paralysis has never been one of Shizuo's afflictions. He grabs the plate. "You said the last twelve seconds, right?"

"Thirty seconds left!" People are starting to gather in the living room. Shizuo begins plucking grapes off of the stem. They're in a corner, so not many people can see them.

"Feed them to me," he says with a reckless grin. Izaya grins back. They're both far past tipsy and into drunk territory, and Izaya is sure that they're making fools of themselves right now.

"Sure," he says, and takes the grapes from Shizuo. As the clock hits twelve seconds before midnight, he starts feeding Shizuo grapes, at first tossing them into his mouth, then hurriedly pressing them past his lips as the seconds pass faster than he expected.

Shizuo almost ruins it by laughing, but somehow he manages to eat all the grapes in time.

"Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!"

The living room fills with the sounds of cheers and toasts being made, and well-wishes and greetings to start the new year off well. Izaya leans forward and presses a kiss against Shizuo's cheek.

  
  
  


Izaya stumbles in the entryway, and Shizuo catches him, holds him upright. Then he stumbles too, foot catching on the same step. Izaya clutches at him, and they both dissolve into drunken giggles.

"You okay?" Izaya asks. He can't stop giggling though. Shizuo smiles at him, adoration suddenly filling him with warmth. He's sure that it must be written plain across his face. Izaya is gorgeous like this, with a slight flush on his cheeks and his warm smile; his laughter makes Shizuo feel like his blood is fizzling with happiness.

He kisses Izaya, clumsy with haste, trying to find some way to show his appreciation. Izaya tastes a little like champagne, golden and honey-sweet. Izaya giggles again when Shizuo nips at his ear, and nibbles at his jaw. His hands are all over Izaya's body, skimming along his back, his sides.

"I'll take that as a yes," Izaya says.

"I love you," Shizuo replies. He loves saying this to Izaya, loves watching Izaya blush. Heat blooms along his veins, chasing out the drunken giddiness and replacing it with desire.

"I love you," Izaya says back. He sounds breathless as he says it, as if his throat is still caught on laughter.

Shizuo moves forward instantly. In one motion, he picks Izaya up and Izaya wraps his legs around Shizuo's waist. Even with both of them drunk, this is muscle memory by now. Shizuo remembers to wrap an arm around Izaya's waist to hold him up, and Izaya remembers to lean forward instead of back. His arms wrap around Shizuo's neck, a little tighter than usual, but Shizuo doesn't mind

"I want to do it," Shizuo says, dizzy with the proximity, with Izaya's scent everywhere around him. "Can I?"

Izaya is instantly on board, " _ Yes, yes, fuck yes, please. _ "

Izaya is always more vocal when he's drunk. His voice loses some of its polished gleam, slurs into something altogether different but still incredibly alluring.

Shizuo kisses the hollow of his throat, his collarbone. He can't get enough. Despite the chilly temperatures outside, he feels like he is blazing with warmth. Izaya digs his shoulders hard against the support of the wall behind him, and reacts helplessly to every touch.

Shizuo can't keep his hands off of Izaya. It's like he has lost his mind. He can't stop trying to find satisfaction in every touch, so his touches become greedy strokes of his palm against bare skin, and a simple press of bodies becomes suggestive grinding motions. Izaya laughs, and again every cell in Shizuo's body seems to react with pleasure.

"Let's do it here," he says recklessly. Izaya laughs again, with a tinge of hysterics to his voice this time.

"You're drunk, Shizu-chan," he says. "Are you sure that's a good idea? What if you fall?"

Shizuo answers by pulling off Izaya's shirt and kissing him again. "I can't wait," he says into Izaya's open mouth, feeling too dizzy to breathe. "I want you, now."

Izaya moans in response, his body sliding against Shizuo's suggestively. Shizuo lets him down, briefly, so that they can take off the rest of their clothes. But the second they're naked again, Izaya presses himself hard against Shizuo's chest.

"I need you," he pants, sounding slurred and desperate. "Come on, Shizuo. Fuck me right here." His hands are between their bodies, his fingers curling around Shizuo's cock, pulling and stroking. Even with alcohol making his movements a bit more clumsy than usual, Shizuo still thinks that Izaya's hands are the most graceful things he has ever felt or seen.

He lets Izaya stroke him to hardness, all while his own hands are running posessively across Izaya's skin, playing with his nipples. Izaya giggles again when Shizuo's cock twitches in his grasp. Shizuo growls and pinches one of Izaya's nipples in retaliation, which makes Izaya yelp.

"Shizu-chan,  _ please -" _

Shizuo picks him up again. It has always been easy for him to lift Izaya up, either because of his strength or because of Izaya's lean frame. He heads into the cottage as Izaya presses kisses into the side of his face and his hair.

He stumbles a little and Izaya shrieks as he feels the balance shift. " _ Shizu-chan _ , don't drop me!"

"I'm not gonna drop you!"

"Yes you are!" Izaya bats at his shoulders, wriggles a little in Shizuo's hold. Shizuo wants to pin him down so hard that he can't move.

"You're dropping me already," Izaya says, still shifting, trying to get into a better position. His thighs are right around Shizuo's waist, all soft warm skin and irresistible and he  _ won't stop moving _ .

Shizuo tightens his grip around Izaya's waist, hard enough to make Izaya gasp. He starts making his way into the living room. Izaya whines constantly about being dropped. He doesn't stop until Shizuo has found the couch, and deliberately lets Izaya fall down on top of the cushions.

For an instant, Izaya has his breath knocked out of him. His eyes go wide with shock, but he never gets the chance to draw a breath and speak. As soon as he falls, Shizuo is on top of him, and as soon as he lines his cock up with Izaya's entrance, he drives his hips forward in one sharp thrust.

Izaya never even stands a chance. The sound that he makes is almost a wail. It seems to travel through his whole body, and when it comes out of his throat it is pure heat and pleasure and desperation. Shizuo feels it go straight into his veins like a shot of liquid ecstasy. 

For a moment, he has to gasp and do everything he can to hold himself together. Then Izaya moves, his head falling back against the cushions, his hands scrabbling desperately at Shizuo's sides. He is making small rocking motions with his hips.

Shizuo presses down into him, feeling tremors under his skin as if he is about to detonate from pleasure. Izaya feels amazing - every inch of his skin and every breath from his lips - Shizuo can't get enough of him, can't imagine an existence with these things out of reach, without Izaya's laughter and his stroking fingers and his warmth.

  
  
  


Izaya feels as if he has become liquid heat, water held together only by the weak force of surface tension. He should be evaporating, with the amount of heat under his skin and under his veins. But instead, all of it gets locked within his body instead, making his temperature rise, making him feel impossibly hot.

He really doesn't know what he's done to deserve this, this blazing happiness. They had been together for six years now, and sometimes Shizuo still blows him away.

He's barely even aware of what's happening around him. All he can keep track of are the brief flickers of time passing in between each of Shizuo's thrusts. Then Shizuo moves again, and it's like a clock gets reset in Izaya's head, the timer gets reset to zero. He loses track of everything.

He can tell that Shizuo is searching for something, positioning himself carefully before thrusting forward into Izaya's body. His hands press down on Izaya's hips, as if intending to hold Izaya down against the mattress forever. It's easy for Shizuo to move him around like this, to pull him closer, to press his thumbs against the jut of Izaya's hipbones and -

A sensation like a bolt of lightning shoots through him. Before Izaya realizes it, he is arching off the bed. His legs tense in an effort to drive his hips up against Shizuo's body, but he can't move.

A jagged sound comes out from his throat. His mind is surely broken now, shattered into pieces. 

In an instant, Shizuo is on top of him, all over him, his mouth drinking up Izaya's desperate gasps, his hands steadying every tremor. Izaya loses his mind for a long while, and simply trusts Shizuo to catch him and reel him back eventually.

  
  
  


Coming back down to earth is always a slow process for Izaya, a slow spinning to a halt, his mind clearing gradually.

Across from him, Shizuo is half buried under a pile of blankets, and when Izaya turns to look at him, he cracks an eye open.

"You alright?" Shizuo asks.

Izaya does a mental check, then a physical one. "I'm alright," he replies, and leans forward for a quick kiss.

"See?" Shizuo grins at him. "You shouldn't be so afraid of me dropping you. It didn't turn out that badly, did it?"

Izaya remembers that terrifying rush, then the sudden press of Shizuo's body against him afterwards. He shivers as an echo of heat goes through him again.

Instead of answering, he just pouts. Shizuo laughs anyway.

The bed shifts as Shizuo gets up to get dressed, but Izaya grabs on to his arm and pulls him back down into a hug. Shizuo pretends to wrestle with him for a bit, holding himself up and resisting being pulled back down. When he finally gives in, Izaya can't stop himself from smiling helplessly. 

"Happy New Year," he says softly.

Shizuo looks at him, and for a long time, they simply smile at each other.

"Happy New Year," Shizuo says back.


	7. The Kids are Alright

The day before the kids are due to go back home, Saki goes missing.

Kida Masaomi knows it's his fault. Everything is his fault, recently. The missing pocky sticks, the fact that their teachers are irritated and stressed all the time, Mikado's inability to sleep well, the roof in their hotel that collapsed. He wishes time would slow down a little, sometimes. He can't keep track of so many things going wrong.

None of them want to go back home. Kida can remember all too clearly how awful it is back in Tokyo. No matter how cold it is here in Aomori, he thinks his house is colder. All three of them are the same. After all, none of their families wanted to spend their New Years with their own kids. How pathetic is that?

Their class is the problem class, full of the problem children. It shouldn't have been a surprise that their trip to Aomori has been one disaster after another.

It started when Anri heard voices in the corners of their first hotel, with its huge empty hallways and its dark windows.

"I don't like this place," she said in a small voice. "It gives me the creeps."

The other three had looked at her in concern, but they were kids. What could they do?

Kida had been the one to come up with the idea. They weren't going to hide from the voices that had scared Anri so badly. They were going to hunt them down, face them, and make this hotel their own. They were going to be living here for the next few days, after all. And, also, Mikado had wanted to explore the place.

Then the roof had caved in right over them, and snow had come rushing in like a solid white wind. For a few minutes, everything had just been chaos and screaming, and _cold_ , the kind that slowly worked its way into your bones. Everything hurt, and in the confusion, it had taken half an hour for the teachers to find them.

They had all been caught out of bed, late at night. The head teacher had been furious. She had been absolutely terrified that they were all still buried under the snow somewhere, only to find them safe and sound down another hallway.

"I knew this would happen," Anri whimpered, clutching her head and curling up into a ball on the snowy ground.

"It must have been precognition," Mikado murmured back, huddling next to her, trying to comfort her. Above them, the adults were arguing in shrill voices. It was incredibly dark outside, and snow whirled around in fat flakes around them, pinpricks of grey against black.

"What's that?"

"Precognition," Mikado seemed proud to know a word that the rest of them didn't. "It's like when you can crystal ball something. You can predict the future."

The rest of them simply gave him a flat look. Mikado seemed to be the one least bothered by the cold. Kida himself felt like he was going to freeze to death at any rate, and Saki had gone nearly catatonic with an unhappy, resigned frown on her face.

"Are you okay?" Kida asked her, worried.

"This is happening to us because we were bad kids, right?" Saki closed her eyes and leaned into him for more warmth. She stopped saying anything after that, and she stopped shivering. A spear of guilt shot through Kida.

If he hadn't suggested leaving their rooms, all four of them, they wouldn't be this cold right now. If they hadn't angered the ghosts that Anri had heard, then maybe the roof wouldn't have collapsed at all.

_It's my fault_ , he thought. _It's all my fault._

  
  
  


The teachers are worried that she might have been kidnapped, but Kida knows better. Out of all four kids, Saki is the one who has hated the idea of going home the most. Mikado's parents live in the countryside, so he almost never sees them. Anri only has a mother who works most of the time. But both of them get along with their parents, at least. Kida hates his parents, both of them. And Saki doesn't just have parents that she hates, she has an older brother that she's terrified of too.

But as the day goes on and still Saki doesn't turn up, Kida starts to get worried. What if she really _had_ been kidnapped? And where _is_ she? It's still incredibly cold outside, and images of Saki lost in a snowdrift or lost in a chasm of ice keep haunting his thoughts.

Kida comes up with another idea. He probably should leave it alone. So far his ideas haven't gotten them anywhere, and have only led to bad things happening. But he has to give it a try.

He gathers up Mikado and Anri. When they hear of his plan, they agree to go with him.

It's easy to slip out from under their teacher's watch. The teachers are all busy with the search, and Kida leaves a note anyway, scribbled out with a pen and a notepad and left on the kitchen table. _Going out to look for Saki. Will be back by dinnertime. Sorry._

Then they go over to the lodge where Hewajima-san and Izaya live, because if Kida knows anything about looking for a friend, it's that the first thing to do is to ask for help. And it seems like Shizuo, at the very least, is a trustworthy adult.

  
  
  


Unfortunately, Izaya is the one who opens the door. Kida doesn't like him as much as the other one - Izaya likes teasing them all too much. He also tends to see too much. He doesn't seem surprised to see three children clustered around the doorway, which is Kida's first sign that something is amiss.

"Well now," Izaya says, "You three look so serious. It's like you're the three musketeers."

Mikado is on his left and Anri is on his right. Kida thinks he has no reason to be scared of this guy.

"Where is Heiwajima-san?" Kida asks.

"He's inside, making a call." Izaya hesitates and doesn't invite them in, which is Kida's second sign that something is off.

"We need to ask him a favor, please," Kida says stubbornly. "It's _really_ important." He is pretty sure that if Saki is trapped under a cliff somewhere, they'll need Shizuo's strength in order to hold it upright so that the rest of them can rescue her. None of the other adults are that strong, so Kida doesn't need their help.

"What kind of favor?" Izaya prompts.

Kida grits his teeth. He thinks Izaya is being rude. What's the point of all this questioning?

"We need his help to find Saki," he says, and a pleading note enters his voice. "She's gone missing." _We have to find her, no matter what_. She could be all alone right now, and cold.

Izaya doesn't react to that, which is how Kida realizes that he already knew. He steps aside, and looks to the left.

"You hear that?" he asks. "Your friends have come looking for you."

Then, turning behind him, he yells into the hallway, "Shizu-chan! Her friends have come to pick her up!"

"That's great!" Shizuo calls back. A moment later, he appears, holding his cellphone and looking relieved.

Kida barely registers any of it. Saki is _here_?

All three of them barrel in, past Izaya. As Izaya shuts the door behind him, they see Saki, huddled miserably against a pillar, just out of view. Her eyes are red like she's just been crying, and she doesn't look happy to see them.

"Come on," Izaya calls up to her, grinning a little. "Aren't you happy to see your friends? See? I told you they would come for you."

Saki doesn't answer. She just tries to hide, even though it's useless, and they've all seen her now.

"Don't you want to go home?" Shizuo adds, and Izaya shoots him a warning look, but it's already too late. Kida knows that the last thing Saki wants to do is go home.

As Saki turns to run, Kida shouts: "SAKI! WAIT!"

Turned away from them, Saki doesn't move. Her hands clench into fists.

"I'm not going back," she says quietly. Her hands tremble. "I'm gonna be yelled at for being a bad kid."

Kida loses his temper. He has known this about Saki for a while - that all this acting out, and all her anger, simply comes from guilt that is too much for her to bear, guilt that she doesn't deserve to feel, but still does.

"I don't care if we're bad kids!" Kida yells at her. "I don't care! You met me, didn't you? If you weren't a bad kid, you wouldn't be in the same class as me or Mikado or Anri right now! We're friends now, aren't we?"

Everyone in the room stops to turn and stare at Kida, but Kida just keeps going, completely oblivious to all the eyes on him. Saki has finally turned to face him, looking shocked. He only has eyes for Saki.

"Come back," he pleads. "Or if you _really_ want to stay here, then I'll stay with you. We'll _all_ stay with you. But don't ever go off on your own and leave us behind again!"

"But I'll just be a bother!" Saki yells back, red-faced. "I'm quiet. I never talk. I'm not good at any of your games. You all think it would be better off if I wasn't there, right?"

"No we don't!" Mikado and Anri chorus, almost in unison.

"NO, you IDIOT!" Kida yells, loud enough to drown them both out. Shizuo and Izaya both give a start at such a huge sound coming out from such a small kid. "We _want_ to be with you! _I_ want to be with you! So don't say that you're annoying, or a bother, or a drag, or any of that! It's not true!"

Izaya's jaw drops to the floor.

In the silence, Saki stares back at Kida, color slowly flooding into her cheeks. He glares at her impatiently, as if daring her not to believe all the things that he had just said.

"Oh," Saki says faintly. "Okay."

A few moments later, still nobody has moved. The silence stretches to something unbearable.

Seeing that nobody else is up to the task, Shizuo kneels behind Saki, and gives her a gentle push.

"Go on," he says encouragingly. "Your friends are waiting."

So Saki takes one stumbling step forward, then another. And after a while, her steps take her into the arms of all her friends, spread wide to accept her in a huge group hug, one that teeters unsteadily on the weight of eight legs, and eventually topples over.

  
  
  


After the door closes, Shizuo leans against the doorframe, and catches sight of Izaya flopped dejectedly on the couch, curled up as if he had just gone through something incredibly traumatic. Shizuo can't stop himself from laughing out loud.

On the couch, Izaya lifts his head several inches to glare at him.

"Shizuo, why are you laughing?"

Shizuo comes over to him immediately, but he has never figured out how to copy Izaya's straight-faced look, and so he breaks out into an even wider smile. "I can't help it," he says.

"I'm _sulking_ , and you're _laughing_ at me?"

"It's just - " Shizuo has to break away to laugh even more. Izaya bites his lip and tries not to get caught up in it, lest he start laughing too. "It's just, it was so _funny._ You were all geared up to meddle in this kid's love life, and he just comes out with something like that. All your planning was for nothing. You should have seen your face. It must have been the greatest shock of your life."

Izaya buries his head in his pillows, ignoring this heartless stranger. "I was just trying to help," he complains.

"I know," Shizuo's hand comes up to stroke his hair. He's still laughing, though.

He and Izaya had found Saki huddled dejectedly outside their doorway. Within a few minutes, it was clear that she had been intending to run as far as she could, but had been driven to seek shelter by the cold. They had given her blankets and hot cocoa to warm her up, and eventually the whole story had come out.

The ghosts in the old hotel, all four of them leaving, the roof caving in as a result. Shizuo couldn't understand how Saki could have believed that all those horrible things happening had been her fault. But, as Izaya explained to him later, kids often projected their feelings into the strangest of beliefs, especially if they already carried an inordinate amount of guilt inside them already.

Izaya had been able to predict that the other three kids would come and find her, but he hadn't been able to predict anything beyond that. The events after that had completely spun out of his control, and Shizuo could tell that Izaya was conflicted between sulking or marvelling at the entire situation.

"Come here," Shizuo says warmly. "And stop sulking. It all turned out well, didn't it? Saki has her friends now, and Kida has basically confessed. That was the end result you wanted, right?"

"I know," Izaya sighs. He burrows his face further into Shizuo's shoulder, and hums contentedly at the comforting scent. "All my plans, though," he grumbles. "They've all gone to waste."

Shizuo runs a finger along his back, across his sides. He turns his head slightly. "It's too bad," isn't it, he says with suppressed laughter. "Kids are just too unpredictable, sometimes."

Izaya raises his face to pout at him.

"I'll have you know, I'm _really_ good with children," Izaya tells him. " _My_ kids won't be as bratty. I've already got all of my kid's bedtime stories picked out. If they are anything like you, they'll miss the lesson but enjoy it anyway."

For a moment, Shizuo just stares at him.

He can see it - Izaya curled up in bed with his, with _their_ child, passing off life lessons as cute bedtime stories. He can imagine the scene as if he were there, listening to Izaya's voice and drifting off to sleep himself, holding a child in his arms snuggling underneath the covers to keep them warm.

Izaya stares back at him, confused. Then, all of a sudden, his face goes redder than Shizuo has ever seen in his entire life.

"I'm not suggesting -" he splutters, "I didn't mean that - I'm just kidding. I don't actually -"

Shizuo doesn't hear him. His mouth is on Izaya's before he knows it, and he's kissing hungrily, wanting to take that vision of the future and make it a reality. He has never wanted something so badly before. It feels like homesickness, a longing for something that hasn't even become home yet.

"Your kids would be adorable," he says. " _You're_ adorable."

"Wait, Shizu-chan," Izaya laughs breathlessly. His cheeks are still tinged with a blush. "I'm a guy. That's not how this works."

"I don't care," Shizuo replies. "We'll make it work, somehow. We can't be the only ones who want this."

He wants everything now - long, lazy Sunday afternoons, a place that both of them call home, the sound of laughter under his roof, a dinner table surrounded with chairs and people, easygoing, everyday banter. He wants children, scores of them, running around with bare feet and high voices. He wants a house that is bursting at the seams.

Izaya blushes again, maybe even harder than last time. Shizuo knows that he's probably already looked into this, doing research in secret, without telling Shizuo. It makes his head go light and dizzy, to think that all this time, Izaya has been planning a future with _him_ too.

"Okay," Izaya says. "But you've got to take reality into account, too. Wanting to make things work won't magically change the rules. I have to start making money. We'd have to find a surrogate. We have to argue about names. Wait, before that, we have to argue about how many kids we want. I think three is too much -"

"Wait," Shizuo says. "There's something before all that." Izaya stops in his tracks.

"What?" he asks.

Shizuo has been thinking about it for a long time. He originally wanted the moment to be perfect, wanted a light show or fireworks, or glass fireflies around them as they stared at a view of the city. He's imagined asking, many times before now, but he's always stopped before he could get the words out. But now, tangled together on a couch, with no one around but themselves, Shizuo thinks that now is as good a time as any.

"I love you," he says simply. "Will you marry me?"

He gets to see Izaya at a complete loss for words.

He gets to see Izaya start laughing, then crying, both at the same time. 

Then, when he gently reminds Izaya that he hasn't gotten an answer yet, Izaya throws his arms around Shizuo's neck and says: " _Yes,_ what the heck, Shizu-chan? You sprang that on me out of nowhere. Yes! I'll marry you! Dammit, _I_ was going to ask!!! I can't believe you beat me to it!"

He kisses Izaya, grinning so hard that his cheeks start to hurt. "You can still ask me," he says.

"Will you marry me?" Izaya asks. "I love you, it has to be you. You're the only one for me."

"Yes," Shizuo replies, properly this time. His heart is beating so fast and so loud that he can feel it in his chest. He didn't realize that a simple question would send him into such a high.

Izaya is still laughing, his eyes bright, and Shizuo hugs him as tightly as he can, feeling like he has the most precious thing in the world in his arms.

"You know what marriage is, right?" Izaya asks. "You know that it means that you're mine? Forever?"

"Forever and always," Shizuo promises. And as Izaya reaches up to kiss him, giddy with laughter, Shizuo thinks that no matter what happens now, the two of them will be alright, and life from now on is going to be wonderful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sobs
> 
> This is the end, everybody!
> 
> Confession: this was 100% a mess but it's okay. I never had a realistic, positive adult relationship to use as an example in real life, so I really wanted to write one. Real life is pretty awful, sometimes, but one thing that I've found out, now that I'm an adult, is that moments like these can really happen too. Also, I might be freaking out about kids subconsciously and so this fic is my way of self-indulgently freaking out about that. Thank you for reading this story!


End file.
